Merck enlist Avenue for Erbitux launch
pharmafile | July 22, 2004 | News story | |Â Â Â
Merck UK has launched its first cancer treatment, Erbitux, with a communications programme led by Avenue HKM.
Avenue was selected after a five-way pitch process to aid Merck with Erbitux's promotion and the pharma company has also set up a new group, the Oncology Business Unit, to lead its efforts in this largely unfamiliar therapy area.
Apart from an exclusive distribution agreement with GlaxoSmithKline for the ovarian cancer drug Hycamtin, Merck doesn't have a history in oncology despite a strong pipeline of upcoming drugs in that area.
The company is dealing with this shortfall with a mixture of internal promotions and external recruitment of people with oncology experience. The Oncology Business Unit is now 16-strong, giving it a field force presence that is equivalent to Roche's backing for its first line colorectal cancer drug Avastin, according to Jeremy White, market development manager within the unit.
Avenue, part of the Blackwell Publishing Group, will provide an integrated launch programme of professional relations, medical education and consumer and professional media activities, as well as communications support to Erbitux in the longer term.
The drug is due to be reviewed by NICE in its tenth wave programme, but for head and neck cancer, indications that are still under investigation, rather than for colorectal cancer. Publication dates for the appraisal have not yet been set, but will follow on from the final appraisal from the preceding programme, due in May 2006.
Denise Richard, head of the oncology business unit, Merck Pharmaceuticals, said: "Erbitux is the first and only monoclonal antibody for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) to be licensed in the UK and we hope it will be widely available to all patients.
"We are delighted to be working with Avenue HKM, whose expertise in conducting integrated communications programmes will help us to ensure that the launch of Erbitux is a success."
Erbitux targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), found in more than 80% of mCRCs. Its new European licence makes it the first drug to be approved as a third line treatment for EGFR-expressing mCRC in combination with AventisCampto, after Campto failure.
Merck is investigating Erbitux as a treatment for a variety of tumour types. A phase III trial of patients with head and neck cancer, reported to the 2004 ASCO conference in New Orleans, showed that patients receiving Erbitux and radiation therapy live nearly twice as long as patients treated solely with radiation therapy.
Merck has licensed the worldwide marketing rights for Erbitux from ImClone Systems with the exception of the US and Canada, where they are held by Bristol-Myers Squibb and ImClone.
Merck's plan is for Erbitux to be one of a number of novel cancer drugs that will establish it as a key cancer player over the next few years.
The company's cancer pipeline contains several drugs in phase II or III clinical trials. These include: EMD7200 (matuzumab), a fully humanised monoclonal antibody in phase II development to treat gastric, cervical and non-small cell lung cancer, mitumomab (formerly known as BEC 2) which is being investigated for lung cancer, BLT 25 which is being tested for lung cancer and the anticancer and anti-angiogenesis drug Cilengitide.
In the UK, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men and the second most common cancer in women but access to treatments for it has been criticised.
Joanna Marchant, Avenue HKM chief executive said: "While on average UK oncologists manage significantly more colorectal cancer patients than their European counterparts, the UK is lagging behind other European countries in the types of chemotherapy treatments offered to people with colorectal cancer."
A recent study, supported by Merck, found that funding levels and access to modern chemotherapy treatments on colorectal cancer treatment in Britain is the most restrictive in Europe.
The study of oncologists in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain found that 65% of British oncologists said that rationing affected decision-making in their use of standard chemotherapy drugs for mCRC, compared to the European average of 24%.
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